Chapter 89
"You really haven't changed at all, Aaron," the woman said mockingly. "So, do you have friends now?"
Aaron looked at her flatly and replied in an indifferent tone, "There's no way you're moving alone."
"Of course I'm not alone," the woman answered with a bitter smile.
The two exchanged glances while each took a fighting stance, already thinking of ways to defeat or perhaps kill the other.
The woman clicked her tongue as she stepped firmly to the side, then her footwork quickened as Aaron backed away toward the other three who were walking in his direction.
"Where do you think you're going, traitor?" the woman shouted loudly. Her jaw tightened, her heart burned with fury, and her fingers clenched the edge of her clothes as she kept running after Aaron.
'Traitor? Since when?' Aaron thought as he ran faster.
"You three, go look for that woman's companions," Aaron shouted as he stopped in his tracks. Then he turned around, staring at the woman as she slowed her pace, the scraping sound of her shoes grinding against the stone road growing heavier as her anger spiraled out of control.
'That woman can see me because she has the same eye color as me. But then... why couldn't I see her earlier while we were fighting?'
Aaron was genuinely confused by the woman. Remembering their previous duel that had ended in a draw, he concluded that she clearly held a grudge against him.
Without another word, the three of them pushed through the grass hedges separating the university pathways from the gardens at the roadside.
The woman let the three pass her just like that, as though she truly did not care about what happened afterward, especially the earlier explosion, because all her focus was fixed solely on Aaron.
She was genuinely furious over what Aaron had done before.
After that, the tips of their shoes dug into the stone road before sliding sideways, spinning once before their fists collided right in the middle of the pathway, while the flames surrounding the smoke not far from them looked like judges overseeing the fight.
Aaron was having an extremely hard time because the woman kept targeting the weak points of the human body, especially the neck. He blocked her attacks with both arms, and neither of them used their abilities at all.
The fight made every movement perfectly calculated; a single mistake could cost them their lives.
The woman stepped back several paces before charging straight at Aaron with all her strength, clenching her fist tightly and coating it with half the spirituality inside her body along with her ability.
Aaron did the same as before; a rapidly spinning black point filled the palm of his hand.
He hesitated for a moment, slightly shocked when he realized Celina could produce a voice like an ordinary grown man, and with the artifact she possessed, she could truly become either a man or a woman with one absolute condition; darkness that favored her.
The explosion triggered earlier by Zavi had created towering smoke along with flames surrounding it, turning their battlefield bright as day. The artifact's ability immediately shattered within seconds.
The two attacked each other with only a fraction of their strength, and the moment the backs of their hands collided, a freezing sensation quickly crawled through the gaps between their fingers before spreading throughout their entire bodies, sending them flying several meters apart from the impact as the surrounding air split apart.
Celina and Aaron's breathing turned ragged, their chests rising and falling as both bent over with their hands pressed against their knees.
Then Celina straightened herself while wiping the sweat from her face with her sleeve.
Aaron stayed silent as Celina rushed toward him again at the same speed, as if she truly intended to kill him right there.
Time seemed to slow as Aaron stared at Celina's annoyed expression directed at him. He felt this was the perfect moment to end the fight.
He let out a short breath, his stomach pulling inward for a moment as his breathing sounded almost like a groan.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, Aaron severed his own hand with the help of the shadows circling beneath his feet, turning his fingers and nails razor sharp as he moved forward with his left hand completely gone.
Celina's eyes widened the moment she realized Aaron was truly serious about fighting her this time.
Celina clicked her tongue as she slowed her steps and created a large amount of black smoke capable of covering the flames so she could move more freely like before.
A Receivers from Transmitter, at its first level, Controller.
Aaron immediately halted when he realized the surroundings had become similar to before. It was not as dark this time, yet the moment the black smoke appeared, something churned violently in his chest and his vigilance instantly rose.
Then in the blink of an eye, Celina appeared behind Aaron as though she had completely merged with the black smoke itself.
She clenched her fist tightly, followed by the black smoke wrapping around her arm. Aaron was shocked. He had not sensed her presence at all despite receiving signals from his subordinate Exorcist ability.
Thud!!
Aaron's body spun violently after receiving a direct hit from Celina, his back crashing through the grass fence and shattering the flower pots lined up behind it.
He groaned in pain, but before he could straighten his vision, his subordinate ability signaled him to duck immediately.
A blast of scorching air shot over his head, creating a shockwave that unleashed a violent gust of wind powerful enough to devastate the entire university grounds.
The corner of Aaron's lips slowly rose as he began sinking into the shadows beneath his feet, restoring his left arm and preparing to launch a silent attack just like Celina had done.
Celina immediately froze where she had launched her last attack, caution tightly gripping her thoughts as she realized Aaron had entered a state that made him extremely difficult to catch.
But this time she did not stay still, gambling with her words before Aaron could silently appear and attack her.
"Come out, you coward!" Celina shouted loudly, her voice filled with irritation that only thickened the black smoke hanging in the air.
When she received no answer, Celina immediately added, "Where are you, traitor? What, are you afraid of losing to me?" She laughed mockingly, trying to provoke Aaron.
Every time he stopped to provoke Aaron's emotions, his mouth moved as if he was talking but he wasn't really talking.
The exchange of wounds through the underground shadows, along with the veil that constantly remained beneath his feet, was complete. Aaron immediately emerged, half materialized from the chest upward along with both his arms.
"Looking for me?" Aaron muttered, instantly punching Celina while restraining her.
Unable to react to Aaron's sudden appearance, Celina was thrown several meters away from where she had been standing and was about to land in the middle of the two-way road.
However, Celina never landed there because Aaron was already waiting at her landing point.
Again and again Aaron unleashed devastating punches.
And the moment Celina returned to the place where she had attacked Aaron with the black smoke burst, Aaron appeared where she landed, and this time he stared at her sharply as he stomped the ground, followed by countless hands emerging from beneath his feet and tightly restraining Celina's body so she could not escape.
Aaron's left hand shattered once more as something formed beneath his feet, bounced upward while spinning, then dropped into his right hand.
"This might be the gift you've been waiting for all this time," Aaron said while wearing a terrifying expression directed straight at Celina's face.
Celina struggled violently, the veins on her forehead bulging as she let out a long string of mutters that made Aaron's ears feel hot listening to them.
Aaron smiled while touching the hand with his palm, giving her a chance to speak.
Heavy, suffocating breaths followed, then came a stream of curses that only amused Aaron more.
"You bastard. Let me go. You cowardly traitor, how dare you do this to me? Useless man. No wonder you don't have any friends. Bastard. This hurts like hell, let me go already and fight me fairly."
Aaron sighed in disbelief as he glanced behind him, sensing the faint presence of someone else behind the fading black smoke, and that person clearly had no intention of killing him.
Realizing that, Aaron immediately took the artifact from Celina's grasp before it sank away through the shadow hands that seized it.
After that, he dragged Celina's body into the shadow world where he could move freely underground by releasing the shadow veil without trapping anyone within a hundred-meter radius above the surface.
"Now then, come out if you want revenge for your companion's death."
Only after saying that did he realize something that left him stunned by the woman's bold actions.
The world seemed to spin, time slowed down as all his senses spiraled uncontrollably while his body was split apart twice beneath the ground, inside the shadow world where he moved freely through the released shadow veil.
This was an illusion. An illusion from a fifth-level mind manipulation spell attached to Aaron's body when Celina launched her final attack, though it had missed its intended target.
The moment she realized Aaron never came out from underground, she immediately moved away from the range of the shadow veil because she knew it would only benefit him, considering the ability's range was about a hundred meters according to her memory.
Celina clicked her tongue as she jumped over the damaged grass fence and hurried away to regroup with her companions.
This time, the fight between the two was forced into a draw because the situation had heated up once again.
From below, Aaron laughed in admiration after realizing how cunning the woman had been when secretly attaching that spell onto his body, then stalling him with provocative words earlier so he would immediately emerge to attack her.
After making sure all five of his senses were functioning properly, Aaron immediately emerged from underground and released the shadow veil once more.
'She ran because she realized the spell wouldn't last long since she cast it in fragments while provoking me to come out.' Aaron smiled once again, already intending to fight the woman again if they ever met.
Meanwhile, several hundred meters away from Aaron's previous location, right beside the massive and magnificent university building that was swallowed in darkness that night, the three of them stood on guard after being stopped, or more precisely, confronted by five people; three men and two women, dressed normally in white shirts, cream tailcoats, and black overcoats.
'Are they the people I've been searching for this whole time?' Zavi thought as he stared at the silhouettes lined up and blocking the road ahead.
"Sir?" Felina murmured warily.
With a swift yet calm motion, Zuhen pulled out his cigarette pack and took one stick before placing it between his lips.
He slipped the pack back into his jacket pocket, followed by his right hand holding a lighter before flicking it downward.
The orange flame from the lighter illuminated part of the road along with the two standing beside him. Then Zuhen pointed the lighter forward to properly see the faces of the five people before lighting the cigarette in his mouth.
He stepped back after inhaling the smoke, then exhaled it to the side before speaking in his hoarse voice, "Tell... looks like today's your lucky day."
The strange creature shaped like a human, yet not quite human, with the body of a baby, yet far from anything that could truly be called a baby, giggled softly as it flapped the tiny wings beneath its shoulders and said cheerfully,
"Thank you for giving me such a wonderful gift."
Tell flapped both its wings while wearing a happy expression when he saw the five of them willingly give their lives to him.